Float Violations Shut Off Salmon Forest Service Closes 15 Miles Of Upper River

The Forest Service has made good on its threat to thoughtless floaters violating salmon protection regulations and closed to the public a 15-mile stretch of the upper Salmon River for floating.

“We have no choice,” Paul Ries of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area said on Monday. “People continue to knowingly violate closed portions of the river and interfere with threatened and endangered salmon spawning even after they have been personally informed by various agency people.”

Commercial outfitters and guides, who have abided by the regulations since they were imposed Aug. 10 were unaffected by the order.

Only public floaters are now barred from the section of the river between Sunbeam Dam and Torrey’s Hole. Those caught floating that reach will be cited.

Rafters were warned last week that they were one violation away from being barred from the popular stretch of the river because they were ignoring the requirement to portage around the nests, or redds, of spawning endangered chinook salmon.

“Overall we had very good understanding and cooperation from the public this weekend,” Sawtooth National Forest spokesman Dave Kimpton said. “But one group was told they would have to portage, and they said they weren’t going to. And they didn’t.”

In addition, portions of three campgrounds have been closed to increase protection for salmon and help vegetation recover from human impact.

The four commercial outfitters, who carry hundreds of customers each week down the river, have yet to receive a violation, Kimpton said.

But while they can continue to float that stretch of river, they will have to pay more than $13,000 to the Fish and Game Department and the Forest Service to monitor the salmon redds after Wednesday.

Kimpton said public floatboaters can still run the river from Stanley to Basin Creek where there are no spawning salmon.

Last year, 37 salmon reached the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery upstream from Stanley, compared to more than 100 so far this year. Because the fish are nearly extinct, biologists want to be extra careful not to disturb them.

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